White Cloud Kansas Chief

How It Strikes a Stranger.

A few evenings since, we met a stranger coming into town from the West, who remarked that he did not see how White Cloud was ever going to make a town, as there were no settlers in the country around. It must be confessed, that he had some reason for his conclusion, for it is a fact, that there is not a farm cultivated in Doniphan County, west of White Cloud, an extent of some three miles. Nearly all of this land is in the hands of speculators, who are interested in the town. They hold on to it, permitting it to lie uncultivated, with the expectation that the growth of White Cloud will enhance its value, when the truth is, the town and country must work to each other's advantage—if there is any difference, it is more important that the country should be settled up.

This is one side of the matter, and the only one which is calculated to give strangers a wrong impression of the town. If an enemy of the place desires to say something against it, he will examine the country west of it, and immediately declare that there is no back country to support the town. But they forget to look in any other direction. There is a great deal of land under cultivation, south and south-west of this, and also in Brown County, some three or four miles west. Then, there is the Missouri bottom, on the opposite side of the river, whose interest and prosperity are as nearly connected with White Cloud, as if it were in Kansas. If that were all that is necessary, this bottom produces crops more than sufficient to supply the people of White Cloud, if there were not an inch of cultivated ground in Kansas. But no one need be badly frightened, because a body of land, embracing several square miles, has fallen into the hands of speculators. It looks bad enough to a stranger, or to any one who will not see in any other direction; but there is at present no prospect of a famine. It will not be long until there is plenty of cultivated land about White Cloud, in every direction.